Mid-Hudson jobs and joblessness on upswing in September

Unemployment in mid-Hudson counties was higher in September than it was a year ago, continuing a months-long trend suggesting a muted economic recovery.

James Walsh

Unemployment in mid-Hudson counties was higher in September than it was a year ago, continuing a months-long trend suggesting a muted economic recovery.

Orange County's jobless rate last month was 8.2 percent, up from 7.9 percent in September 2011. The unemployment rate in Sullivan County was 9.3 percent last month, up from 8.8 percent a year ago. Ulster County's jobless rate rose to 8.6 percent from 8.1 percent, according to the state Department of Labor.

Those figures translate into 7,500 unemployed people in Ulster last month, up from 7,100 a year earlier; 14,400 in Orange, up from 13,800; and 3,200 in Sullivan, up from 3,000.

Unemployment across New York state in September was 8.9 percent. The U.S. Department of Labor counted more than 134,000 additional private-sector jobs statewide in September 2012 compared to a year before. The state has attributed rising unemployment rates in the mid-Hudson region to an increase in the number of job-seekers.

Despite the rising unemployment rates, there were more people employed in Orange and Dutchess counties last month than a year ago, Christy Huebner Caridi, director of the Bureau of Economic Research at Marist College, said Tuesday.

"The rising unemployment rate is a function of more people being in the labor force ... ," she said.